"Learning" for quizzes! Where does your quiz knowledge come from?

This point was raised in the comments of another post I had made and it has got me thinking. Do you, or have you, as a quiz player learnt bodies of information purely for the purpose of quizzing? What is your style of learning information? Do you learn new information from reference books etc or do you rely on what you encounter on a daily basis? Where does your quiz knowledge actually come from? Hopefully some readers will reply to this as I would be interested in having a chat about it.

So lets start with my main question............Do you actually learn information specifically for quizzes?

Although I have a genuinely natural curiosity anyway, I do learn information for quizzing purposes. I am not ashamed to say it, I would never deny it and I enjoy it. I love learning new information, facts, events and anything and everything I come across. To have my quizzes as the end goal of this is the icing on the cake. Sure enough, if pub quizzes did not exist, my reading, tv viewing and attention to the weeks news would be far far different.

I have a wide library at home of reference books which I have bought, in 99% of cases, purely for quiz purposes. Yes I enjoy reading them anyway but the main reason I find myself reading certain books are to spruce up my quizzing knowledge. Certain subject areas that I do not have any real interest in, I find myself reading about to get some basic knowledge into my head. Encyclopedias, Atlases, books such as A-z of Everything, Quiz Companions, Almancs....all there to boost my quiz knowledge.

And that's not counting the thousands of quiz questions residing in the literally hundreds of quiz books of my shelf. 

Some may consider this sad or pointless, but its a hobby and I am not ashamed of it. I througholy enjoy it, coming in from work grabbing a nice cup of tea and sifting through a few quiz questions, learning a few facts and heading to a quiz on an evening.

It would be great to hear others approaches to this?

Compared to most dedicated quiz players, I am just really starting out. At 25 years old I feel for my age I have an excellent general knowledge and a wide range of subject areas with an in depth knowledge. But where has this come from so far?

If I have a long hard think about the basis of my strongest areas of general knowledge come from my hobbies. When I was in my teens I had a wide range of interests but it was always sport at the top of my list. Watching sport, reading about it and taking part in it. Even if I never attend a quiz in my life my level of Sports Knowledge would be the same as its a passion and hobby of mine. The only real sport I don't know much about is Horse Racing so it must be said 90% of horse racing knowledge I have comes from quizzes. I do intend one day to learn more about famous winners of races etc but in all my entire sporting knowledge started with me being a dedicated youngster, mad keen about sport and is now scoring me points in the quiz. So that strand of knowledge therefore comes from my own personal interest and is largely unaffected by my quiz addiction.

Two other areas I have always been keen on, and bordering on obsessed with, are films and music. Obviously some eras are stronger than others, pre-50's music is a tough one for me at present but in terms of anything else these are both strong areas based on my own interests. I have though went out to learn more information about this from books and on the internet to build up my knowledge so I would be lying if I said my knowledge in these areas were just from hobbies. For instance, at a recent quiz there were 5 questions on Creedance Clearwater Revival which I scored 0 points from, so sure enough the next day there I was on youtube watching CCR videos and learning more about that era in music. So I guess films and music are two areas I would have had a strong knowledge on anyway but due to being a dedicated quizzer I have a far greater one.

Then I guess I have to think back to my education. Due to holding a degree in History I am strong in particular areas of History, although a 12 module History degree covering narrow areas is not going to make me superb in the subject, it doesn't stop the "Come on you're the one with the History Degree!?" everytime a question arises on the subject. Very rarely though would I actually attribute any of my knowledge to my GCSE or prior days even though I was a straight A student, I do not think much of the information from those days wins me quiz points today.

This post has turned into a bit of a rambling going way of course but Im simply wondering to what level other quizzers learn information for quizzing purposes?